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2.15 Home Range Use by Swamp Rabbits

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2.15 Home Range Use by Swamp Rabbits NC-4153 Problem I _ _ VMPR,WFWARCode: 2.15 Am. Midl. NaL 143:64-69 _0 reprints Home Range Use by Swamp Rabbits (Sylvilagus aquaticus) in a Frequently Inundated Bottomland Forest Department of Wildlife and FisheriPATRICKA"es, MississippiZOLLNERIState Universit); Mi_sissipfli State 39762 _'_t_a _ _- _'_'w" Soulhern lIa,'dwoods Laboratory, United States Forest Service, Stoneville, Mississippi 38776 _" _ _ rn AND LEONARD A. BRENNAN s _ g _ I"%_ 1._- Department oflVildlil_ and Fisheries, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State 39762 _..g_ "_ _ Qa ABSTRaCr.--Home range size of six swamp rabbits ill south-central Arkansas was estilnated _ _ _ O" • :. bv radio- e emetry ti-om February 1991 through March 1992. The average home range size _ r-. tO wasablesignificantlyto the large largernumberthanof obserpreviovusatiolynsreportedper rabbestimates.it in our Tsthuidys ,differencebut may alsisopartlybe exapulainedribut- _1. _(l i__ _"O_ O ba- by our inclusion of numerous locations of swamp rabbits during periods of deep inundation. _-_ _ _ • All of the individual rabbits tracked used different areas when the study site was flooded. _- _ _. _r_-. Theseresultsprovidethefirstquandtafivedeseriptionoftheresponseofswamprabbitsto _ _ _ _ flooding. _ _H " Throughout their range swamp rabbits (Sylvilagus aquaticus) are found in wet forested _ _0.t_ environments such as bottomland hardwood forests (Chapman and Feldhammer, 1981; _. -. McCollum and Holler, 1994). An important aspect of these enviromnents is the disturbance associated with frequent flooding (Harris and Gosselink, 1990). Clearly, inundation has negative consequences for swamp rabbits (e.g., increased embryo resorption [Conaway et al., 1960]) increased starvation (Svhila, 1929) and increased mortality from hunting (Mar- tinson et al., 1961). To survive in such seasonally flooded environments resident animals must respond to changing water levels, e.g., by moving to refugia during periods of inun- dation (Crawshaw and Quigley, 1990). The response of swamp rabbits to flooding has not been quantified. However, swamp rabbits have been observed resting on stumps surrounded by water (Ix)we, 1958; Terrel, 1972) and home range size has been shown to decrease when flooding was common (Kjolhaug and Wootf, 1988). These observations suggest that swamp rabbits restrict their movements in response to inundation, although they are also known to inhabit adjacent upland habitats (Zollner et al., 1996). It is unclear to what extent swamp rabbits use such neighboring habitat as refugia during inundation (McCollum and Holle_ 1994J but Allen (1985) suggested that these areas may be crucial for the preservation of small isolated populations. More broadly, the ecology of the swamp rabbit and the way it uses space is poorly un- derstood (Lowe. 1958: Gould. 1974: Allen. 1985L Only two published studies have investi- Present address: USDA. Forest Service. North Central Research Station. Forestry Sciences Labora- tory. 5985 Highwa_ K. Rhinelander Wisconsin 54501 Present address: USDA. Forest Service. Pacific Northwest Research Station. Forestry Sciences Lab- oratory. 2770 Sherwood Lane-Suite 2A,Juneau. Alaska 99801 Present address: Tall Timbers Research Station. 13093 Henry Beadle Dr.. Tallahassee. Florida 32312 64 2000 ZOLLNER El" AL.: SWAMP RABP,1TS 65 gated the home range of this animal using radio-telemetry (Gould, 1974; Kjolhaug and Woolf, 1988) and they were conducted at the extreme southern and northern ends of the species' range, respectively. Other estimates of the size of home ranges of swamp rabbits are based on less reliable data such as trapping records and dog chases (Lowe, 1958; Toll et al., 1960; Terrel, 1972; Mullin, 1979). This dearth of data is surprising because the swamp rabbit is a popular game species in the southern portion of its range and a species of conservation concern in the northern portion of its range. Thus, the present study had two objectives: (1) to quantitatively assess how an individual's home range changes in response to flooding and (2) to estimate swamp rabbit's home range size in south-central Arkansas. - METHODS The study was conducted in Moro Bottoms Natural Area and adjacent private lands near Fordyce, Cleveland Co., Arkansas (33°47'N, 92°20'W). Moro Bottoms Natural Area contains a forest of bottomland hardwoods under the shared stewardship of the Arkansas Nature Gonservancy and the Arkansas Natural Heritage Program (Smith and Zollner, in press). The area was ca. 70 ha; 40 ha was mature bottomland hardwoods. Second-growth forests of mixed upland pines and bottomland hardwoods occurred to the north and east of Moro Bottoms Natural Area for several miles. Additional second growth bottomland hardwoods occurred to the south and west of the study site for several miles. Immediately to the south of Moro Bottoms Natural Area was a 10 ha bottomland site that was intensively harvested in July of 1989. Sweetgum (Liquidamber styraciflua) dominated the overstory in the bottom- land forests, whereas loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) dominated the overstory in the adjacent upland forests. Composition of overstory in all forests included oaks (Quercus spp.) and hickories (Carya spp,). Between 60 and 145 traps were set and checked daily between 12 January and 26 June 1991. Captured rabbits were fitted with a 350 g radio-collar and released. After release a rabbit was allowed 1 wk to adjust to its collar and recover from the stress of capture, after which observations of movements began. Four rabbits were collared and tracked for both the spring/summer (15 April-1 Oct.) and fall/winter seasons (1 Oct.-15 April), a fifth rabbit was tracked only during the spring/summer season and a sixth rabbit was tracked only during the fall/winter season. All rabbits were adult females except for a single adult male (#740) that was only tracked during the spring/summer season. Monitoring of rabbits began on 22Jan. 1991 and concluded on 5 Mar. 1992. Each rabbit's location was recorded once daily until death or transmitter failure. Diurnal observations occurred 5 d a week either between 0630 and 1200 or between 1200 and 1830 based on the flip of a coin. The other 2 d each week rabbits were located between 1830 and 0630. Starting times for noc- turnal monitoring periods were selected from a ranoom numbers table and triangulation stations (see below) were always visited in the same order. All locations used in analysis were considered temporally independent, based on the criterion that sufficient time elapsed between observations [or the rabbit to be able to move from one side of its home range to the other (White and Garrott. 1990:147). During the day we were typically able to locate each rabbit in a brush pile or thicket by walking around it with the antenna removed from the receiver. This was possible because the initial response of swamp rabbits to a threat is to remain motionless /Hamilton, 1955) and it allowed us to esumate the position of each individual within a few meters (alwavs <_5 rill. Hm,/evel_ to mimmize disturbance to the rabbits, we 'did not attempt to confirm locations with visual observations. Nocturnal positiom were determined using triangulation from a series of stations placed throughout the study area (Zollner. 1993). All nocturnal hearings were taken from stations within 250 m of the area where the animal was active. 66 THE AMERICANMIDLANDNATURALIST 143(1) Locations were not estimated more precisely at night because of logistic difficulty and in- creased animal activity (Gould, 1974). The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates of the location of each swamp rabbit were used to estimate home range size and assess response to inundation. Each diurnal position was visited when the rabbit was not present and distance and bearing to a point on a transect were measured. UTM coordinates of the transects and the nocturnal triangulation stations were determined with a Trimble Pathfinder Professional (Trimble, Navigation Inc. Sunnyville, California) global positioning device. Ninety five percent fixed kernel estimates of home range size with smoothing selected by least squares cross-validation were generated using The Home Rar_ger program (Version 1.5; F. Hovey, 1999). For mul- timodal data such as ours, kernel techniques provide more accurate estimates of home range size (Seaman and Powell, 1996; Worton, 1989, 1995; Seaman et aL, 1999). Seasonal home ranges (fall-winter and spring-summer; Kjolhang and Woolf, 1988) were calculated only if >15 locations were available for an animal in a season. Annual home ranges were calculated for all animals for which seasonal home ranges were available in both seasons. Separate home ranges were also calculated for each rabbit using locations when the study area was inundated and when it was not. Locations were classified as in- undated when the depth of water at a permanent depth gauge (Fisher and Porter Co. Series 8) in the center of the study area was >39 cm. This depth corresponded to conditions during which more than 90% of Moro Bottoms Natural Area was covered by at least 20 cm of standing water (Zollner, 1993). The gauge recorded the depth of water hourly through- out the study and flooding occurred during both seasons. We used a t-test to test compare our estimates of annual home range with those reported in southern Illinois (Kjolhaug and Woolf, 1988). We used paired t-tests to compare the average fixed kernel estimates of home range size for our rabbits during inundated and dry times. We used the BLOSSOM software package (Slauson et aL, 1991) to develop Mul- tiple Response Permutation Procedures (MRPP) comparisons of the portion of home range used during inundated and dry conditions for each rabbit. MRPP statistics are a distribution- free tool for testing whether two groups come from the same or different populations (Zimmerman et aL, 1985; Biondini et al., 1988; Cade and Hoffman, 1990). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Our 95% fixed kernel estimates of home range size were significandy larger It = 3.49.
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